Vernii
02-12-2007, 00:03
I've decided that a new thread to keep track of Vernii's recent technological and industrial developments would be appropriate, to avoid sidetracking regional RPs. The RP that previous developments were posted in can be found here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=532912)
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The Solar Navy's attempted invasion of Gregor had been a viciously fought battle, one that had destroyed a large number of the system's industrial facilities. While post-war reconstruction loans had enabled the rebuilding of destroyed economic assets, and system industrial output had in fact, grown more productive compared to its pre-war status, the fact that even with the bulk of the Imperial Navy protecting the capital, the heart of the Imperium's industry and war potential had proven to be so vulnerable had shocked defense planners and left them looking for solutions.
Dispersal of population and industry had been the chosen solution, and the system of New Tyrolia had been chosen as a prime candidate for relocation due to its proximity via wormhole and mostly untapped resouces, while providing economic incentive had been chosen as the method. Tax breaks and subsidies had done their work, and the small colony on the sole habitable planet, Hamburg, had soared from 150 million people to just under one billion inhabitants in the few years between the end of the war and the present. System industry had grown alongside the population; asteroid mines had sprung up like ant colonies, each surrounded by a bustle of automated ore transfer units and mining craft, while processing and production centers clustered around Hamburg itself.
Dozens of solar power satellites orbited Hamburg, transmitting their collected energy to receivers on the surface with microwave beams. Elsewhere, mirrors surrounded cylindrical industrial stations like flower petals, drinking in the energy produced by the two stars at the heart of the system to satisfy the thirst of the machinery within. In geostationary orbit, an incomplete torus surrounded by delicate latticework, an I2-class habitat under construction, was almost halfway finished. It would house approximately 50,000 workers for the new expansion to the minor KIG shipyard in orbit.
Other developments in New Tyrolia were under way as well...
A research vessel, owned by the Scütwerks armaments corporation, slipped into hyperspace at the edge of the system, one of hundreds of departures a day, and consequently unnoticed. Today it was carrying the prototype unit for a test of a new payload delivery system. Compared to the technicians, it was large, the size of a small car; compared to the faster than light drives of the Imperium's super freighters and capital warships, it was absurdly tiny. Of course, it was meant to propel far smaller things than megaton starships, and with a much more limited range in mind.
Within a cavernous primary hangar of the starship, orange suited technicians made their final checks and manhandled the counter-grav sled containing the device into the primary launch bay. Seconds later, green lights lit up in the test control center, signifying that the launch bay was cleared of personnel and the device was ready. At the push of a button, a counter-grav pulse gently dropped the device into space.
The control center immediately buzzed with activity.
"Data link established."
"Transmitting translation coordinates."
"Capacitors charging."
....
"Capacitors fully charged, awaiting orders."
"Signal the unit to begin translation."
Had the device been in an atmosphere, observers would have heard a high pitched whine as the device's translation engine began to power up as it drew energy from the capacitors. Circuits completed, control progams acknowledged the order, the drive field came up, and in the final thousandth of a second before shifting over into real-space, the device vanished in a flare of light, reducing it to component atoms and scattering them across the shifting colors of hyperspace.
"Damn."
+++
The Solar Navy's attempted invasion of Gregor had been a viciously fought battle, one that had destroyed a large number of the system's industrial facilities. While post-war reconstruction loans had enabled the rebuilding of destroyed economic assets, and system industrial output had in fact, grown more productive compared to its pre-war status, the fact that even with the bulk of the Imperial Navy protecting the capital, the heart of the Imperium's industry and war potential had proven to be so vulnerable had shocked defense planners and left them looking for solutions.
Dispersal of population and industry had been the chosen solution, and the system of New Tyrolia had been chosen as a prime candidate for relocation due to its proximity via wormhole and mostly untapped resouces, while providing economic incentive had been chosen as the method. Tax breaks and subsidies had done their work, and the small colony on the sole habitable planet, Hamburg, had soared from 150 million people to just under one billion inhabitants in the few years between the end of the war and the present. System industry had grown alongside the population; asteroid mines had sprung up like ant colonies, each surrounded by a bustle of automated ore transfer units and mining craft, while processing and production centers clustered around Hamburg itself.
Dozens of solar power satellites orbited Hamburg, transmitting their collected energy to receivers on the surface with microwave beams. Elsewhere, mirrors surrounded cylindrical industrial stations like flower petals, drinking in the energy produced by the two stars at the heart of the system to satisfy the thirst of the machinery within. In geostationary orbit, an incomplete torus surrounded by delicate latticework, an I2-class habitat under construction, was almost halfway finished. It would house approximately 50,000 workers for the new expansion to the minor KIG shipyard in orbit.
Other developments in New Tyrolia were under way as well...
A research vessel, owned by the Scütwerks armaments corporation, slipped into hyperspace at the edge of the system, one of hundreds of departures a day, and consequently unnoticed. Today it was carrying the prototype unit for a test of a new payload delivery system. Compared to the technicians, it was large, the size of a small car; compared to the faster than light drives of the Imperium's super freighters and capital warships, it was absurdly tiny. Of course, it was meant to propel far smaller things than megaton starships, and with a much more limited range in mind.
Within a cavernous primary hangar of the starship, orange suited technicians made their final checks and manhandled the counter-grav sled containing the device into the primary launch bay. Seconds later, green lights lit up in the test control center, signifying that the launch bay was cleared of personnel and the device was ready. At the push of a button, a counter-grav pulse gently dropped the device into space.
The control center immediately buzzed with activity.
"Data link established."
"Transmitting translation coordinates."
"Capacitors charging."
....
"Capacitors fully charged, awaiting orders."
"Signal the unit to begin translation."
Had the device been in an atmosphere, observers would have heard a high pitched whine as the device's translation engine began to power up as it drew energy from the capacitors. Circuits completed, control progams acknowledged the order, the drive field came up, and in the final thousandth of a second before shifting over into real-space, the device vanished in a flare of light, reducing it to component atoms and scattering them across the shifting colors of hyperspace.
"Damn."